What You Should Know About Statewide Candidates

What You Should Know About Statewide Candidates

What To Know: Hawkins proposes to have 100 percent clean energy by 2030 instead of 2050, a single-payer health care system, indexing a $20 minimum wage to inflation and productivity, a full opt-out from high-stakes school testing, full funding for all public schools and tuition-free public colleges.

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Below is a rundown of where candidates for statewide office running for the Nov. 6 election have said while they are on the campaign trail or according to releases issued by their campaigns in recent weeks.

A sample ballot can be found on Page B10 of today’s edition of The Post-Journal.

What To Know: Andrew Cuomo, former state attorney general, is seeking his third term as governor and second with Hochul, a Buffalo resident, as his lieutenant governor. Accomplishments he claims are marriage equality, a statewide paid family leave policy, a $15 minimum wage, free college tuition for New York’s middle class, a ban on fracking and passage of the SAFE Act. Cuomo also claims credit for lower tax rates, the state’s highest credit rating in 50 years and a decrease in unemployment throughout the state.

What To Know: Molinaro has thus far proposed the 2019 Albany Accountability Act, which includes term limits for all levels of state elected office, give citizens the power of initiative and referendum, independent redistricting, create a database of deals that allows individuals to search all state economic development benefits and subsidies, end direct grant funding to private corporations, make sexual harassment an ethics violation and establish a new oversight committee that assumes the duties of the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics and Legislative Ethics Commission. He also wants to cut property taxes 30 percent.

Ticket: Howie Hawkins/Jia Lee (Green Party)

What To Know: Hawkins proposes to have 100 percent clean energy by 2030 instead of 2050, a single-payer health care system, indexing a $20 minimum wage to inflation and productivity, a full opt-out from high-stakes school testing, full funding for all public schools and tuition-free public colleges.

Ticket: Larry Sharpe/Andrew C. Hollister (Libertarian)

What To Know: Sharpe wants to repeal regulations that aren’t worth the cost to enforce, like scaffolding laws; focus insurance regulations on industry-driven, local stnadards; limit government interference with wages and compensation; take several actions to render the SAFE Act obsolete by 2019 and repealed by 2020; legalize marijuana; treat addiction as a health concern rather than a criminal matter; end subsidies to major corporation; end education at 10th grade and allow parents and students the opportunity to choose between the workforce, college or trade and apprenticeship programs; give more control over education to local school boards rather than state officials; require health care providers to have transparent pricing that is simple and easy to understand; repeal certificates of need; provide a website to help New Yorkers find information about health care; and convert Medicaid into a health care debit account to give patients more flexibility.

Ticket: Stephanie Miner/Michael Volpe (SAM)

What To Know: Miner proposes a new independent commission to investigate and fight corruption, ban anonymous campaign donations, prohibit economic development programs that reward campaign contributors, empower the state comptroller to oversee economic developmnet proposals, limit compensation of statewide officials and legislators to 25 percent of their salaries; infrastructure investment, cut property taxes, decrease bureaucracy, make sure there is universal high-speed broadband access statewide, re-examine the public meetings law so budget negotiations are public, reuqire competitive bidding for goods or services, withhold legislative salaries with no retroactive payment if budget deadlines aren’t met; a state takeover of Medicaid costs with savings passed to taxpayers.

What To Know: created the Fiscal Stress Management System to measure local government’s financial conditions; conducted the first school accountability initiative to audit every school district and BOCES on a rotating basis; grew state pension to $207.4 billion.

Jonathan Trichter (Republican, Conservative)

What To Know: Portable and optional defined contribution plans for municipal workers rather than defined benefit plans as exist now; refuse to sign off on new state debt issues to decrease the state’s mounting debt burden.

Mark Dunlea (Green)

What To Know: Dunlea wants to divest pension funds from fossil fuels; be more involved in fraud involving state legislators; increase revenue sharing with local governments and give local governments the ability to enact local income taxes; do a Comptroller’s Office study of single-payer health care; improve audits of state and local agencies.

ATTORNEY GENERAL

Letitia James (Democratic, Working Families, Independence)

What To Know: James says she wants to continue supporting land bank programs, enforce New York’s Zombie Law and pursue banks and loan servicers who stand in the way of loan modifications that could prevent foreclosure; enforce equal pay for equal work, protect New Yorkers from what she terms unlawful actions from the Trump Administration; appoint a special counsel to coordinate efforts to address opioid and substance abuse epidemics; broaden litigation against opioid producers; push New York’s Consumer Protection Law to regulate student loans, sue to stop the federal government from rolling back for-profit college regulations, investigate and prosecute for-profit colleges that engage in fraud and racial discrimination.

Keith Wofford

(Republican, Conservative)

What To Know: Tackle political corruption, fight against bad contracts, bring charges against those suspected of corruption; investigate distribution and manufacturing of illegal drugs wtih local district attorneys, engage in prevention and drug addiction recovery; pursue drug manufacturers if suspected of wrongdoing.

Michael Sussman (Green)

What To Know: Support public finance law changes to disconnect elections from monied interests; strengthen Public Integrity Unit to fight corruption; supports an amnesty program for those who have immigrated to the United States both legally and illegally; allow non-union employees to grieve and arbitrate dismissals; enforce civil rights laws; champion environmental protection.

Nancy B. Sliwa (Reform)

What To Know: An animal rights platform — an animal shelter system with no-killing of animals; a rat-free New York City; banning all puppy mills; creating an animal welfare agency; a statewide animal abuse registry; mandatory animal education in schools.

Christopher B. Garvey (Libertarian)

What To Know: “As a Libertarian, my priorities would be to prosecute crimes where force, threat of force, or fraud were used against persons or property. That would include such crimes by government officials. I would not enforce a law that violates the US Constitution.”